William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director who became a top filmmaker in his 30s with the gripping The French Connection and the horrifying The Exorcist and struggled in the following decades to match his early success, has died. He was 87.
Friedkin, who won the best director Oscar for The French Connection, died Monday in Los Angeles, his wife, producer and former studio head Sherry Lansing, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie, based on a true story, deals with the efforts of maverick New York City police detective James “Popeye” Doyle to track down Frenchman Fernando Rey, mastermind of a large drug pipeline funnelling heroin into
